Veronica Meadows is caught in a world where she is forced to grow out of her 16-year-old detective role.

Jay Pateakos

Whether we grew up reading Hardy Boys or Nancy Drew Mysteries, or watching “Columbo,” “Magnum P.I.” or “NYPD Blue,” many of us have an armchair detective that we always believed we could solve a murder, find a lost child or catch a thief. But we all grew up and moved on to the real world. Well, most of us anyway.

In Trinity Repertory’s new original production, “Veronica Meadows,” audiences come face to face with a girl detective that many of us, at one time, represented. Youth. Naivety. Passion. And what to do with all that when you grow up.

Written by Trinity’s 14-year stage veteran Stephen Thorne, Veronica Meadows wrestles with many relatable dilemmas. As her small town’s resident detective, Meadows, played by a talented and comical Angela Brazil (there are few who can make so many different facial expressions work on stage) and her trusty sidekick Ginny, (Jennifer Laine Williams) solve crimes big, and small. They live by their motto: “Where secrets lie we snoop and spy. We sneak and peek all days of the week.” But like all of us, there’s a time when adulthood begins to creep in and youth is left in the dust. This is Veronica Meadows plight.

Paying homage to classic girl detective stories, Veronica Meadows is caught in a world where she is forced to grow out of her 16-year-old detective role and into a real life role equipped with a job, a family and the problems that come with that. The human struggle she faces is what we all face. When do you grow up and leave it all behind? Meadows, like many of us, struggles with this, clinging to her once proud past. But how long can any of us do that?

Even Ginny, tossing aside a good detective book in exchange for experimenting with every man she meets, suddenly leaves Veronica alone to forge ahead in life or stay behind alone. Fellow resident acting company members Phyllis Kay, Brian McEleney, Fred Sullivan Jr. and Joe Wilson Jr. play multiple, more-than-memorable roles as they interact with Meadows in various parts of her life. Trinity seemed to work hard to create a set that was imaginative yet familiar to us all, one that would lend to a life of detective work while being just like your mother’s kitchen when you were 16. And they succeeded.

In the end, everyone will take something different from this imaginative play. Some will recall their youth and the passions they once had. Others may remember the difficulties in realizing the need to grow up and move on to the next stage of life. Still others may realize they never truly left their childhood. For Veronica Meadows, even she didn’t know where she wanted to go. Part of her wanted to remain a girl detective forever while the other part told her it was time to grow up and be an adult. Much easier said than done. For many of us, we still have a little bit of growing up to do. And many wouldn’t want it any other way. Who knows if we will ever fully get to adulthood? And neither does Veronica. And none of us have a problem with that.

Veronica Meadows runs though May 3 at Trinity Rep. Tickets are on sale now at www.trinityrep.com, by calling (401) 351-4242, or at the theater’s box office at 201 Washington St., Downtown Providence.